If you want to write on a MS-DOS formatted floppy using your Amiga, you
have to enter "MOUNT PC0:" (for the first floppy drive) into
your Shell or CLI. If you are still using Workbench1.3 I have to disappoint
you: at least Kickstart and Workbench2.0 is needed here. But below I will
also tell you of another way suitable for your Amiga system (a direct
connection between Amiga and PC using a special connection cable).
Depending on your Amiga hardware (DD or HD floppy drive) you are able to
access PC disks of 720KB or even 1,44MB size. Nowadays Amiga users are even
able to read ASCII-Texts, view image files or listen to sound files
(the most familiar types are e.g. PCX, GIF, JPG, BMP, TIFF resp. WAV, RAW).
Day by day there are more file types that an Amiga is able to "understand"
using several new software. But if you try to open PC's *.EXE files you need
a PC emulator (e.g. PC-Task). That is a tool which imitates a PC using your
Amiga hardware. If you are still using a "slow" Amiga of 7,14 MHz
the PC software will be very slow; furthermore many Amigas have less RAM
(standard Amigas have only 1MB or 2MB of RAM that is not just used for the
programs but also for graphics and sound). Current PC emulators just emulate
a 486 PC, and you won't be able to run any MS Windows higher than version 3.11.
For some time there have also been Pentium-PC expansion boards that were
connected to several parts of the Amiga so you finally had TWO computers in
just ONE box, using just ONE keyboard and ONE mouse. The Amiga Workbench
could be displayed on the PC's Windows and vice versa.
But let's come back to data exchange! If you have a PC formatted disk in your
Amiga's floppy, and you want to edit a text file, you have to run a text
converter due to differences in both computers' line break and ASCII commands.
("Cross-Dos", to be found within Sys:Tools/Commodities). Furthermore
you must know if the final text shall be viewed on a MS-DOS or Windows system,
for both of them also use different ASCII tables. For MS-DOS texts, you have
to select "MS-DOS" in the Cross-Dos window; for Windows texts it
must be "ASCII-7".
So MS-DOS formatted disks can be accessed using an Amiga. But if you try
accessing Amiga disks on your PC, you'll see that it seems to be impossible.
Neither MS-DOS nor Windows can do it. There are tools to be found in Internet
that can do this job - after you changed a bit within your PC's hardware.
They save your Amiga disk as a file of type *.ADF . This file can be accessed
using an Amiga emulator on your PC (e.g. "WinUAE"), and within this
emulator you can copy the separate files to your PC's harddrive.
But the most comfortable way to transfer data seems to be a direct link
between Amiga and PC using a special cable. The tool "PC2Amiga"
(requires at least Workbench2.0) supports a serial connection via Null-Modem
cable (the serial [com-/modem-] ports of Amiga and PC are connected) or a
parallel connection using a parallel Null-Modem cable (the parallel [printer-]
ports of Amiga and PC are connected). An Amiga with a PCMCIA port can also
bear a PC laptop network card using related software drivers, and so can
be connected to your PC's network card.
Each of these cases brings you another sort of drive on your Amiga's
Workbench that represents the PC's harddrive. You can copy files from and
to this drive as well as you are familiar with accessing your Amiga's floppy
and harddrive.
And now, back to you, users of Workbench1.3: You can also link your Amiga
to a PC using a Null-Modem cable. All you need is a suitable kind of software
that can be found in Internet.
If you have an Amiga with a Modem, you can even exchange data via mailboxes,
using the suitable software tools.
If you don't have the right tool, or if you're still searching for more information, take a look at my Links to Amiga-Sites in Internet.